Hi David,
Your and my interest kinda run along the same path's! Love contesting, but
don't have the antennas to really be competitive; I still get into them
'thinking' I'm gonna win! Hasn't happened yet, but what the heck! Love low
band DX'ing, have 327 countries on 40m CW and 287 countries on 80m CW. (All
with my Omni 6)
I presently own an Omni 6 Option 3, an Omni 6 Plus, an Orion, and an Icom
IC-781.
I bought my Omni 6 in '92 and later had the option 3 installed. NEVER had a
better radio that the Omni 6! From '92 until 03, when I got my Orion, the
Omni 6 was not only the best receiver I've ever owned, it was by far, the
most reliable ham radio I've ever owned. In those 11 years, it only broke
once, and that was due to the infamous 'operator error'. I still have it,
even though I don't use it anymore, but parting with it would be like
selling an old friend. It has thousand's of completely trouble-free
operating time on it.
My Orion is what I now call a 'work in progress' rig.
My Omni 6 Plus is also a very good radio, it's DSP noise reduction is, in my
opinion, better that the option 3 for the Omni 6, but neither of them
approach the excellent noise reduction of the Orion. In all three rig's, I
have all of the narrow CW filters and think they sure are worth while to
have in these radios. I know the lab test results don't show it, but in
contesting with my Omni 6, I found the rcvr front end to be extremely strong
and almost impervious to strong signal overload during contesting.
On my Omni 6, having a 6MHz 500hz BW filter and a 9 MHz 500Hz and 250 Hz BW
filter served me excellent, both in hearing very weak signals while DX'ing
on both 40 and 80m, plus they both serve you well when contesting. Just
learn to use and rely on the passband tuning! Just my personal opinion, I
don't the the performance gain realized by anything other than Ten Tec
filters justify the added cost.
I recently retired and bought the Orion as my retirement radio and while
there is no doubt it is probably the best hardware design available, I have
to wait, still, until the firmware bugs can be ironed out by Ten Tec. And
they are making progress. But until then, nothing is gonna pry my fingers
away from my Omni 6 Plus, my Omni 6, nor my IC-781.
Hope you can find a good used Omni 6 Option 3 as they are just excellent
radios.
73,
Tommy
W4BQF
-----Original Message-----
From: tentec-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com]
On Behalf Of David Stansell
Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2005 10:56 AM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: [TenTec] OMNI VI+, option 1, OMNI VI+ option 3,or factory OMNI VI
Plus
I am looking to buy an OMNI VI of some sort. My favorite mode of operation
is CW. What are the main benefits of the extra filter? Would it help to
pull out a station over an OMNI VI without the extra filter? I have found
excellent buys on the option 1 Omni's. I contest but do not have the
station antennas to be a serious contender. I mainly love chasing DX
getting more countries for each band I need them on. I have received advice
to buy the Omni VI that has been upgraded to Option 3 over the Plus. I need
help from you VI owners so I spend my money wisely as this will probably be
my last HF purchase for a long time. I own a 940S kenwood, but from what I
hear about the VI's the 940 will become the backup. Thank you for your help
and I need a good deal as I am retired. Thanks, David W4KA
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